A friend of mine started up his own website recently and uses panorama's as part of the logo. He was told by someone that all photos posted here were public domain hence not having to ask permission to use people's pictures as logos for different pages. But at the bottom of SP it says "All Rights Reserved". So are these rights reserved for the owners of the site? Or owners of people's content? Obviously the courteous thing to do is to ask people for permission which I usually do when hosting pictures outside of SummitPost on my SP pages.

I am guilty of doing it with non-logo's as seen here. I do however link directly to the page which still gives the author credit. Plus the page has no direct "author" (or at least it will coming up considering that it's a wiki). But perhaps I'm doing poor form as well?

I would like to get to the bottom of this issue. Opinions and advice would go appreciated.

P.S. I do not upload pictures that are not mine without permission for the author(s).

SP claims NO ownership of any Content submitted, posted or displayed by SP members. SP members or a third party licensor, as appropriate, retain all patent, trademark and copyright to any Content. [emphasis mine]

In other words, the answer to your question is no. There are a number of us here who sometimes sell our photography, including at least a few serious working pros, and I don't expect those folks would contribute their material if it meant losing copyright. Most serious photographers are realistic about the fact that posting photos anywhere online means that they'll occasionally get swiped, but that doesn't mean it's okay, or legal. People wanting to re-purpose text or photos from SP should get permission from the contributors.

Glad you asked! It's understandable that someone could be confused on the issue.

I was trying to get two main questions addressed. The first one jfrishmanIII answered well. But the second one is still not answered. (the one about me using pictures from SP that link directly to the post that has the author name in it)

Now obviously I can use critical thinking on this situation which will state that some folks might not want me to do this. But if that were absolute, then we would have copy right issues here on SummitPost taking place all the time! (posting pictures in the forums, map use, ect.) Typically I respect Topo copy right laws. But in threads like "Dangerous Lol Cats" I'm willing to bet most folks did not ask those authors to use the pictures.

@ Larry. This is not a dumb thread. Even if I was not wondering, there are folks out there that are or simply do not know.

You are free to use hotlinks to display other's photos. No one can stop you from doing it and it is perfectly legal. As you know people do it all the time. Some will not like it but that's their problem. Their options are to either live with it or stop you by removing the source. You just can not copy their pics onto your own server, which removes their control over it.

Yes. I have no right to stop you from doing it like that, either here or if you want to display it on any other site. You just can't actually copy it over to your site such that it is no longer a link (regardless of whether or not it is modified to show a logo or something).

Regarding Paddles: It's a cute picture. It's good quality, great lighting. I even like the concept of it (Just like Steph posting Thunder Bill). I was a bit jealous that it got 21 Votes. But it all boils down to not taking voting so seriously.

The short version, as applied to the OP? In the US and most other countries, it's legal to use an image from another place, provided that you don't copy it, but link directly to it, as in <img src="http://image_url"/>.

Personally, I believe that one should ask permission before reusing someone else's images, even in this way, but I can see good reasons for exceptions; for example, if inline linking would be ruled illegal, Google Image Search couldn't exist anymore in its present form.

Cheers, Rob(edited for clarity)

Last edited by rgg on Tue Dec 04, 2012 9:28 am, edited 1 time in total.